Exploring the different playoff scenarios for the Memphis Grizzlies

Playoff Scenario Three: A “Playoff Plus” tournament with play-ins

The final playoff scenario that the league might experiment with, and the most likely according to some sources, is what’s being called a “playoff plus” tournament.

With this, there are a few different ideas floating around. The first one is that the eighth, ninth, and tenth seeds would enter a play-in style tournament, similar to what the lower seeds of the NCAA tournament do. It would be single elimination and be held about a week before the playoffs begin.

Another idea is a 30-team play-in tournament, which would see every team in the league enter into the playoff format; this would be done by either having a 30-seed tournament, and a 30-seed play-in which would then be whittled down to a playoff plus tournament.

Obviously, with any of these ideas, it’s impossible to know who the Grizzlies first round opponents would be. But, if the league were to do this, they would almost certainly have to figure out a way to give teams that would have originally been in the playoffs an advantage in order to deflect any criticism.

The league is in some unprecedented times right now, and experimenting with a new postseason system wouldn’t be the most absurd idea. The most important thing for the league is just to not rush into anything without input from teams and players, and to make sure the decision that is made is the majority consensus.